Bitch Media - Orgasmhttp://bitchmagazine.org/taxonomy/term/2276/0
enOn Our Radar: Today's Feminist News Rounduphttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/on-our-radar-todays-feminist-news-roundup-42
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<p><em>Goodmorning and happy almost weekend! Here's the news we've been reading at the Bitch HQ:</em></p>
<ul>
<li>Neuroplasticity is kind of amazing. And this story about&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/22/rafe-biggs-quadriplegic-orgasm-thumb-pictures_n_3130545.html ">a quadriplegic man who learns to orgasm through his thumb</a>&nbsp;is one example of how sex can be so much more than what we think it can if we just open our minds. [Huffington Post]&nbsp;</li>
<li>Progress!&nbsp;<a href="http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2013/04/24/idaho-revises-requirements-gender-markers-drivers-licenses ">New driver ID policy in Idaho allows trans people to correct the gender marker on their IDs</a>&nbsp;without having to show proof of surgery. [Advocate]&nbsp;</li>
<li>Ugh. According to&nbsp;<em>The Globe and Mail</em>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/report-shows-closing-of-gender-gap-in-canada-is-at-a-snails-pace/article11509571/">it will take 228 YEARS to close the &nbsp;gender gap in pay in Canada&nbsp;</a>at the pace it's going. [The Globe and Mail]</li>
<li>"Leftover" women?&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/world/asia/24iht-letter24.html?_r=1">In China, attitudes are shifting around the status of unmarried women.</a>&nbsp;[NY Times]&nbsp;</li>
<li>Another reminder that&nbsp;<a href="http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/04/the-importance-of-listening-as-a-privileged-person-fighting-for-justice/ ">as an ally one of the most important things we can do is listen.</a>&nbsp;[Everyday Feminism]</li>
<li>No human is illegal. Drop the 'I' word and&nbsp;<a href="http://colorlines.com/droptheiword/ ">sign the pledge today.</a>&nbsp;[Colorlines]&nbsp;</li>
<li><a href="https://www.change.org/petitions/indigo-girls-and-other-michfest-2013-performers-boycott-mwmf-until-the-organizers-fully-include-trans-women ">Sign the petition to boycott MWMF,</a>&nbsp;a women's music festival that is openly excluding trans women from participating. [Change.org]&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Stay tuned!</em></p>
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http://bitchmagazine.org/post/on-our-radar-todays-feminist-news-roundup-42#commentsChinaGender GapIdaholeftover womenNeuroplasticityOrgasmNewsThu, 25 Apr 2013 15:25:37 +0000Hannah Siobhan Forman22357 at http://bitchmagazine.orgSexual Inadequacy: SNL and K-Yhttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/sexual-inadequacy-snl-and-k-y
<p>In 2000, Joshua Jackson guest starred on <em>SNL</em>, with musical guest N*SYNC. In one skit, he and his frat brothers wish to see two real lesbians have sex until they all "bust a nut." (I can't remember how anyone got wishes because <em>Saturday Night Live</em> decided to excise "Lez Get Real" from the Internet and removed the skit from its streaming episodes on Netflix.)</p>
<p>At any rate, the bros make a wish and before them appear two actual lesbians, whom they do not find attractive and don't want to see having sex. The two lesbians proceed to have sex, calling each other a lot of weird New Age nicknames; making love the way a spiritual person with strong personal beliefs about partnership and erotic reverence would enjoy themselves in the bedroom. But the joke was not that these are two crunchy granola hippie ladies, the point of the skit was essentially "Oh my God, two butches together, that's so comical and shocking and repulsive." </p>
<p>I took a queer studies class in college, a course the English department had to offer one semester to prevent it from aging out of the curriculum. I remember having an aha! moment reading Leslie Feinberg's "Stone Butch Blues," when the narrator describes being repulsed by the idea of two butch ladies pairing off together, breaking the constraints of queer gender norms and abandoning the butch/femme dichotomy. I had never really questioned the logic of butch/sissy relationships, it had seemed natural that someone would kill spiders and someone would hang curtains, and I was like, "Maybe I'm underestimating the variety and vibrancy of the human experience and being gender essentialist about it,"* and lo and behold that was it on the nose.</p>
<p>At the end of this <em>SNL</em> skit the vision of the two butches getting sexy on one another disappears and it seems as if one of men has ejacked (which, the wish was for them to all bust nuts, but hey, let's just throw magic wishing rules right out the window) and as he's been proclaiming the entire skit, he "loves the ladies." That's it. That's the whole shitty skit. Lesbians are gross unless they are willing to be your Teenage Dream and make you go off like a Firework when they Kiss a Girl (And They Like It).</p>
<p>Last week K-Y released an ad featuring two ladies talking about their sex lives, and lubricant, and "special moments" represented by tasteful coital fireworks. They are both sitting on their bed in drab, comfortable clothes. And they have the following exchange:</p>
<p><iframe width="640" height="510" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/x0lZuB1DyhM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
(<a href="/sites/default/files/documents/kytranscript.doc">.doc transcript here</a>)</p>
<p>There was no joke, no punchline, just two ladies making love and trying out new things. I really like this commercial—I think it is a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>*True Confessions: I wasn't actually aware of the concept of gender essentialism in college, I just knew that human beings were probably more complicated than my parents had initially represented them to be, with regards to categories like male and female.</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/sexual-inadequacy-snl-and-k-y#commentsK-Y IntenselesbianLubricantOrgasmsexSex and SexualityThu, 08 Sep 2011 19:17:14 +0000GarlandGrey12446 at http://bitchmagazine.orgOrgasm, Inc.http://bitchmagazine.org/post/orgasm-inc
<p><b>*spoiler alert*</b> <i>Stop reading now and scroll down to <b>*end spoilers*</b> if you plan to see the film <b>A L'aventure</b> and would rather not read about the its, um, climactic scene.</i></p>
<p>This past weekend, my fiancé and I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon watching <a href="http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/alaventure/trailer" target="_blank">A L'aventure</a> On Demand. The film, an Official Selection at several fall festivals last year, is billed as an &quot;erotic drama&quot;, written and directed by <a href="http://www.variety.com/profiles/people/main/212308/Jean-Claude%20Brisseau.html?dataSet=1" class="infusionLink" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.variety.com%2Fprofiles%2Fpeople%2Fmain%2F212308%2FJean-Claude%2520Brisseau.html%3FdataSet%3D1&amp;gsid=4466344&amp;entitytypeid=16&amp;lid=212308&amp;title=Jean-Claude%20Brisseau&amp;zodid=134')" alt="Jean-Claude Brisseau">Jean-Claude Brisseau</a> (<a href="http://www.variety.com/profiles/Film/main/164100/Secret%20Things.html?dataSet=1" class="infusionLink" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.variety.com%2Fprofiles%2FFilm%2Fmain%2F164100%2FSecret%2520Things.html%3FdataSet%3D1&amp;gsid=4321990&amp;entitytypeid=15&amp;lid=164100&amp;title=Secret%20Things&amp;zodid=134')" alt="Secret Things">&quot;Secret Things&quot;</a>), who has been called &quot;notorious&quot; as a filmmaker and <a href="http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&amp;jump=story&amp;id=1061&amp;articleid=VR1117986067&amp;cs=1" target="_blank">praised for his &quot;fearless exploration of female sexuality.&quot;</a></p>
<p>Frankly, I wasn't terribly impressed by this tale of a sexually dissatisfied woman who pursues sexual experimentation, including via hypnosis. The main character, Sandrine, and two other women (Mina and Sophie) decide to pursue the ultimate ecstasy, spiritual as well as sexual, by being hypnotized by a male psychiatrist, Greg, whose ethics are questionable at best. For Greg, the pursuit of truth triumphs morality. Never mind that he's slept with both Sandrine and Sophie. Still, he does hesitate when the three women ask him to hypnotize them. Eventually, however, he agrees and of course all manner of back-arching, writhing fun ensues. </p>
<p>For one of the women, Mina, the hypnosis takes her back to a mysterious experience from her childhood involving nuns who practice mysticism. By film's end, Mina has The Ultimate Orgasm--complete with levitation, the unleashing of &quot;negative forces&quot; (gusty winds that leave the room in disarray), and of course the resultant selective mutism and desire to join a convent. Are you surprised that Greg has also become Mina's lover? </p>
<p><i><b>*end spoilers*</b></i></p>
<p>For a different take on orgasm and female &quot;dissatisfaction&quot;, there's <a href="http://www.thefledglingfund.org/media/health-care/orgasm-inc.html" target="_blank"><i>Orgasm, Inc.</i></a>, a documentary film which is premiering at the <a href="http://schedule.hotdocs.ca/index.php/2009/film/orgasm_inc" target="_blank">Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival</a> in May. <i>Orgasm, Inc.</i> takes &quot;a humorous and sobering look inside &quot;big pharma&quot; and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, desire and that ultimate moment: orgasm.&quot; The film is the culmination of director-producer Liz Canner's &quot;eight year odyssey following cadre of drug companies as they race to be the first to win FDA approval of their pill, cream, patch or nose spray. The promised result: orgasm and 'normal' sexual function for women. <i><b>Ultimately, the film concludes that the key to women's sexual satisfaction is to change not just our sex lives but also our society.&quot; </b>[emphasis mine]<b><br /></b></i></p>
<p>&quot;After editing porn to be used in research conducted by the drug company Vivus--which was racing against Big Pharma firms to develop a Viagra equivalent for women--[Canner] set out to dissect the corporate commoditization of perfectly normal sexual problems. Along the way, Canner encounters a sex shop owner who crashes pharmaceutical conferences to educate the doctors who attend, a vintage vibrator collector who provides insight into the history of female 'hysteria,' an orgasmatron, and a man whose monkeys have taught him to pay more attention to women. Upbeat, engaging, enlightening, and provocative, <i>Orgasm, Inc.</i> will change the way you think about sex.&quot;</p>
<p>Now that's <i>une aventure </i>that I look forward to seeing. </p>
<p>(Hat tip to my dear friend <a href="http://adiele.com/home.html" target="_blank">Faith Adiele </a>for the heads up about <i>Orgasm, Inc.</i>.)</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/orgasm-inc#commentsBig PharmadocumentaryfilmHealth careInc.Orgasmwomen's healthMoviesMon, 20 Apr 2009 19:34:14 +0000Deesha Philyaw1460 at http://bitchmagazine.org